McLaren happy with its drivers lineup

McLaren is not looking to change its driver lineup, team boss Martin Whitmarsh said this week.

The Woking based team is happy with the highly experienced Jenson Button, but admitted last week it can’t be sure the 33-year-old will still be around for the new Honda era beginning in 2015. “It’s more a question of hoping he will still be here in 2015,” said managing director Jonathan Neale.

Less certain has been the future of Sergio Perez, who joined McLaren this year to replace the highly rated Lewis Hamilton.

The youngster has had a mixed start to his McLaren career. He has often struggled to match Button’s pace and had to apologise for a feisty attack on his teammate in Bahrain, and at other times has appeared to grapple with the pressure of driving for a top team in a competitive slump.

But boss Whitmarsh says he is now starting to see signs of improvement. “Checo is showing the intelligence that we saw in him before (we signed him),” he told reporters during a Vodafone teleconference on Tuesday. “I think he’s working in a positive direction and is a good team player,” added Whitmarsh. “To come into a team with all those pressures and a comparative lack of experience, if you’re going to be a star of the future, you’ve got to beat your teammate. He’s getting stuck into that now. “We’re very happy with our driver lineup. If we give them a better car – as we aim to – I’m sure we’ll have some better results,” he said.